News: NHL cancels all games through Jan. 14, the halfway point of the season.

Views: Buy your beers (and Christmas gifts) elsewhere.

In Denver, they also sell expensive beer (but far cheaper tickets) at the Denver Cutthroats and DU Pioneers. The expansion Fish of the Central Hockey League have just THREE more games over the next month or so, before the big rodeo and stock show takes over the Denver Coliseum. The Derek Armstrong-coached Fish — 15-10-1 and in third place in the 10-team CHL — play home Friday and Saturday vs. Arizona, and Dec. 29 vs. Rapid City.

Look for a DU Pioneers story in Friday’s paper and online about their slide from No. 2 to No. 15 (three-way tie) in the BCS-like PairWise Rankings, and how the boys plan on ending their eight-game winless skid (0-5-3) against No. 6 Boston University (10-5) on Dec. 29 in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game at Magness Arena.

The Pios, who started 9-1, also host the Big Red of Cornell for a two-game series Jan. 4-5, and WCHA foe and fellow National Collegiate Hockey Association founding member Nebraska Omaha Jan. 11-12.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.